Former Sixers head coach Doc Rivers came out of the shadows to assume head coaching duties for the Bucks after Adrian Griffin and his 30-13 record was fired last month. Since then, Rivers has done very little to help Giannis and Company, shepherding the team to a 3-7 record into the All-Star break, the most recent defeat coming at the hands of the lowly Memphis Grizzlies, who boast exactly zero recognizable NBA players.
If that wasn’t bad enough, Rivers proceeded to take no accountability at all for the loss, laying it squarely at the feet of his players.
Wow. That’s an elite level of blame-ducking by Rivers. One question: whose job is it to keep the players’ heads in the game, when it seems their collective attention may be straying? Feel like that could be the head coach of the team, but what do I know?
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Rivers has taken a healthy team with the second-best record in the NBA, and has quickly converted them into a squad in free fall. The Sixers haven’t exactly been setting the world on fire during that time frame, but there is at least one very valuable extenuating circumstance involved.
In any case, NBA Twitter (X, whatever) is having an absolute field day at Rivers’ expense.
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Say what you want about the Sixers’ playoff collapses during the Doc Rivers era, but Rivers deserves a good bit of the blame for each one. You can also argue that he stunted Tyrese Maxey’s growth as a pro, due in large part to his resistance to giving young players opportunities.
Sixers fans as a collective were happy to see Rivers take control of the Bucks a month ago. They believed that he wouldn’t do much to get this team to play to its potential. So far, it turns out their premonitions were dead on.
